Tips For Making Your App More Visible In The App Store

The potential for mobile applications is huge, and it’s only going to get bigger with time. Just look at the number of apps available today: 2.2 million on the App Store, and 2.8 million on Google Play. The App Store alone sold over $29 billion in apps in 2016, up $9 billion from the previous year. There’s no doubt that mobile applications have huge potential as moneymaking ventures, whether in their initial sales or the many ways they can drive other purchases.

However, there’s a consequence for the popularity of mobile apps that developers should consider. With so many mobile apps on the market, it can be hard to make sure yours stands out from their competition. When apps were quite new, people paid attention whenever a notable app was released. The sheer volume of apps available today means that even an incredible app can escape the notice of the market for which it is intended.

Fortunately, there are ways that you can make your app stand out from the pack and attract the kind of notice it will need to succeed. Read on, and find out how you can make your app more visible on the App Store.

Not All Stores Are Equal

The first thing you should know is that different stores use different criteria to rank the visibility of their apps. What that means is that apps optimized for one store are unlikely to be optimized for another. Instead of trying to compromise between the App Store and Google Play, it’s best to pick one and really nail it. Since there are fewer apps on the App Store (ergo, less competition), we’ll focus on that one for now.

Similar to SEO, apps increase their visibility through ASO (app store optimization). The relevant ASO for the App Store is divided into two categories: on-metadata and off-metadata. On-metadata refers to factors you can control (like the name of your app, it’s description, keyword field, icon, and screenshots). Off-metadata is a little more complicated. This category contains information you can’t directly control, but which you can influence via other means. Some of these factors are responses from your customers, like ratings and reviews. There’s also link-building, which is the process of including links to your app’s store page on your website (and which has a particularly notable effect in the Google Play store).

Shortcuts for Boosting Your Visibility

If you have the time and patience, you can attempt to change all of the ASO for your app through trial and error. However, there’s a better way: marketing analytics tools. Tools like Advertising Analytics can provide you with an overview of marketing data for all of you app advertising campaigns, allowing you to track successes and build on them.

The problem is, such tools are not always easy to implement. Analytics tools are usually activated through SDKs, or Software Development Kits. SDKs have to be coded, which can take hours or even days. To save time, you can use an SDK platform like Enhance to automatically write the code for various SDKs and start using the analytics tools they provide faster.

Your app deserves to be noticed, so make it easier by using a few cutting edge strategies. Instead of flying blind with your ASO, consider using SDKs to provide you with the means to improve your marketing, and save time by using a platform that can implement them quickly.